Free workshops for businesses in Crawford and Vernon counties July 13-14

UWEX Broadband & E-Commerce Education Center is hosting a new series of hands-on workshops for small- and mid-size businesses is designed to get you going on popular platforms including: Wix and WordPress websites, advertising on Facebook, and building your customer base through email marketing (MailChimp platform) within a relatively short period of time. Curious about how to use LinkedIn to build your business, or 3 things you can do right now to help boost your search engine ranking? We cover that, too! (See below for more workshop descriptions and to register.)

Our trainers will take you from the beginning (how to select a platform and sign up) right on through how to set your tools up, measure their impact, and best practices for using the tools you choose. Best of all? There is no charge for these workshops to get your business up and running online. Registration open through July 11, 2016.

Chippewa Valley Technical College and two other Wisconsin schools will share a $5 million federal grant aimed at training young adults for jobs in advanced manufacturing, information technology and broadband internet.

Broadband & E-Commerce Center Updates
Outreach Specialist Mary Kluz co-presented with UW-Extension educator Will Andresen at the Wisconsin Associated Cooperative Extension Committees Conference in Wausau on June 21. Kluz and Andresen discussed Supporting Community Development with Broadband. The presentation is available here.

National News/Events

The Rural Health Care Connectivity Act finally passed the full Senate. Among other things, the new law promises to open up opportunities for both the long-term care industry in rural areas and the health IT industry serving those rural populations with telemedicine and telehealth solutions.

"A rural telecom service provider and a neighboring rural electric power cooperative are coming together to bring gigabit broadband to parts of rural Arkansas." | Telecompetitor

U.S. Ignite announces 15-city network of Smart Gigabit Communities. "Each of these US Ignite communities will implement a low-latency and ultra-fast network with locavore (local or edge cloud) computing and storage capabilities. This combination will support highly interactive and visually immersive experiences not possible on today’s commercial Internet. Communities will also receive technical assistance from US Ignite staff and partners in designing and developing applications to take advantage of the new network connections including access to fund accelerators and technical staff." | More Information HERE